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SBA testing leaves a mixed bag for school district

Newly released Standards Base Assessment being pored over by officials

By Matt Robinson

Deming Public Schools

Posted:
07/02/2014 04:09:20 PM MDT

Dana Irby, associate superintendent of Instructional Services for the Deming Public Schools.

Deming Pubic Schools officials are reviewing a mixed bag of test results from the newly-released New Mexico Standards Based Assessment.

Generally speaking, students in grades three to five saw improvements in Reading and Math for 2014, but scores by individual schools vary.

For example, students in fourth and fifth grades at Columbus Elementary School saw significant improvements in Reading performance compared to the fourth and fifth grades of the previous year, but third grader students saw a decline compared to the previous third grade class. Across the board, for third through sixth grades, CES students saw huge improvements in Math.

"We went back to a more traditional strategy protocol," Dana Irby, Associate Superintendent of Instructional Services, said on improvements in Math. "They taught to master a chapter instead of a spiral curriculum."

The term, "spiral" refers to moving along in a course and "spinning around" back to subjects if there are shortcomings. Instead, this past year, teachers sought to have students master sections of the course before they moved to the next.

Bell Elementary had minimal gains in Math performance when compared to last year, and third and fourth grades saw losses. Only third and fifth grades at Bell saw increases in Reading proficiency.

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As Irby said, it is difficult to exactly associate where the gains and losses came from, but speaking generally, she said increased interventions for Reading is a contributing factor to the district-wide improvement in elementary school Reading proficiency.

"This year we paid a tremendous amount of attention to the gaps in skills," she said. "We focused more attention on teaching to gaps in learning."

For middle school students in grades sixth through eighth, the 2014 proficiency results in Reading and Math fell slightly; one percentage point for Reading and nearly two for Math. Red Mountain Middle School, for example, saw an increase in the percentage of students proficient and advanced in Reading in both seventh and eighth grades. Those grades also saw an increase in the percentage of students proficient or advanced in Math.

For Deming High School, students saw a four percent drop in Reading proficiency when compared to last year, but saw the same amount increase in Math proficiency. For grade cohorts — that is, tracking a class as it progresses through high school instead of comparing a given grade level to the same grade level the year before — the high school saw significant increases in Reading and Math for students who are now in 11th grade.

Overall, the subjects tested on district-wide included: Reading and Math for grades third through eighth and 10 and 11; Writing for grades three, five and eight; and science for grades four, seven, and 11.

The year also saw the first assessments taken online by students. Fourth grade students in Bell, Chaparral and Memorial were able to take their tests online. Irby reported the testing ran smoothly. In the coming school year, all student NMSBAs are expected to be taken online.

"The NMSBA will change next year to an assessment which will test the student achievement results on a new state test aligned to the national common core standards," Harvielee Moore, outgoing superintendent, said. "Our principals, teachers and students have been working very diligently to continue to raise their test scores, and I have no doubt but that they will continue their intense efforts next year on the new test."

The NMSBA is a test mandated by the state to measure student proficiency.

For more information, contact the district Central Office at (575) 546-8841.